Moscow , Russia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A Russian lawmaker is calling for a special investigation into a top intelligence official 's alleged release of information on a Russian spy ring in the United States .

The deputy chairman of the Russian parliament 's security committee wants a special commission to analyze how information on the Russian agent got out , said Alyona Zhukova , a spokeswoman for lawmaker Gennady Gudkov 's office .

Zhukova said the lawmaker had confirmed a newspaper report identifying a colonel in Russia 's Foreign Intelligence Service as the source who tipped off U.S. officials . And the lawmaker sees the information as a significant blow to the image of Russia 's intelligence network , she said .

The article , published in the respected Russian newspaper Kommersant Thursday , said `` the betrayer , '' known as `` Colonel Shcherbakov , '' fled Russia three days before Russia 's president arrived in the U.S. for meetings with President Barack Obama -- just days before ring was broken up .

Neither the U.S. State Department nor the Central Intelligence Agency would comment on the report .

The paper quotes a source who says the U.S. , fearing that the Russian intelligence agency would pull its agents from the U.S. , rounded them up and arrested them .

In July , 10 Russian agents were handed over by the United States in exchange for four Russian prisoners .

The article in Kommersant says Shcherbakov , who was identified only by last name , headed up the branch of the Foreign Intelligence Service that oversees agents working abroad undercover but without diplomatic credentials .

`` We know who he is and where he is . He betrayed either for the money or he was caught for something . And there 's no doubt that there is a Mercader has been sent for him , '' an unidentified source was quoted as telling Kommersant . Mercader was an assassin sent by Stalin to Mexico to kill Leon Trotsky in 1940 .

`` He does n't have an enviable fate , '' the source tells the paper . `` He will drag this with him for the rest of his life and every day he will fear vindication . ''

The paper says that Shcherbakov was present in the facility in the U.S. where one of the spies arrested this summer was held . It claims he also took the files on one of those spies with him to the United States .

The colonel 's son also fled Russia for the United States not long before the spies were arrested , according to the paper .

CNN 's Arkady Irshenko , Jill Dougherty and Anastasia Anashkina contributed to this report .

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A Russian lawmaker wants a commission to analyze how a top official leaked the information

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The lawmaker confirms a report naming a top intelligence officer as the U.S. source

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The officer gave the U.S. information on the spy ring , and fled Russia , the newspaper says

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The newspaper article alleges the colonel 's information is what led to the spy ring bust